The new Asia - Europe network is a result of the ongoing review of Maersk Line's global network. "Together with our customers we regularly review our services, amongst others due to new and changing trading patterns and an ever increasing global trade. Thereby we can continue to offer our customers new opportunities and support them in benefiting from globalization," says Peter Frederiksen, Senior Vice President in Maersk Line.
"Our new Asia - Europe network will offer exporters and importers more direct calls and enhanced transit times, especially between North/East China and Europe. An example is Shanghai to Bremerhaven in 21 days which will provide our customers with the best transit time in that market. "To support the improvements and accommodate the expected market growth of 15% on the westbound trade we will increase our capacity by 13% during 2007, primarily through deployment of larger tonnage," says Frederiksen.
The restructured Asia - Europe network will also feature enhanced coverage of the markets in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. Maersk Line will dedicate two services to these markets with direct calls in Istanbul (Turkey), Piraeus and Thessaloniki (Greece), Constantza (Romania) and Ilychevesk (Ukraine).
Emma Maersk and her sister vessels (the PS-class) will be deployed in the AE7 service, which connects East and South China to our hub in Algeciras (Spain) and the Northern European markets.
In addition, our customers will continue to benefit from the features that characterizes Maersk Line's Asia - Europe services, including:
- Unparalleled coverage of the Asia - Europe trade with nine dedicated services;
- Efficient connections to Maersk Line's extensive feeder networks in Europe and South East Asia;
- Best in class schedule reliability according to independent shipping analysts;
- Global connectivity via seamless access to Maersk Line's worldwide network.
